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Raspberry Pi Trading plans £370m+ stock market IPO

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Re: Raspberry Pi Trading plans £370m+ stock market IPO

#81

Post by phkahler »

MarcScott wrote: post #49
jacknews wrote: post #9

RIP RPi. I thought the whole idea was to produce boards, priced near cost, for educational/inspirational purposes? ie to give today's kids the same kind of intro to computers (you have to program it) as kids enjoyed with the home computers of the 80's. The profit motive inherent to a public company does not seem compatible with that mission.

That was the original idea. However, as well as producing a board that was great for education and hobbyists, it turned out it was great for a whole range of applications, and the bulk orders started coming in from companies all over the world. The Foundation is funded on the sales of Raspberry Pi hardware, government contracts and charitable donations. More sales directly benefit the charity. This allows us to: - Ru…

>> I know nothing about an IPO of RPTL, other than what I've read in the media, but I can guarantee you that RPF will continue to be a non-profit charity, and continue with it's mission.

Call me cynical, but you are absolutely clueless. Once shareholders are involved (especially public) the management will be changed. This lovely piece appeared about a week ago here on HN:

https://reactionwheel.net/2021/11/your-boards-of-directors-i...

The RPi founders will be sacked in favor of profits. All those charitable things done for free will be stopped. The $35 Pi - nobody will mind if we raise that to $50. All sorts of things will change. Maybe not immediately, but they will change. The profit motive goes directly against the notion of a "non-profit" organization. Shareholders want ROI. End of story, end of Pi as we know it.

Re: Raspberry Pi Trading plans £370m+ stock market IPO

#82

Post by robomartin »

et15 wrote: post #55
robomartin wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your example is a precise representation of just how little people understand business. Restaurants: Shitty business. Most are constantly gasping for air. Yet, they do make a profit, which they use to hire people, pay for supplies, rent, etc. and keep the doors open. If they do not make a profit their choices are reduced to two simple paths: Close the doors or go get money (loan or investor). A lot of restaurant oper…

I think you're still confusing revenue and profits. This guide is a good overview of the difference: https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/122214/what-differe...

I have self-funded, founded and run multiple businesses in the last 40 years.

What I post does not come from a 30 second google session. It comes from having had significant skin in the game, succeeding and failing. Most people think they understand business. And most people have never run a non-trivial business. It's like trying to explain what it is like to fly like a bird without being a bird. Most simply can't get it because they have no context whatsoever.

When things go bad and you have to mortgage your home and top-off your credit cards to keep people employed and keep the doors open, you understand things you cannot possibly comprehend any other way. I've been there.

Be well.

Re: Raspberry Pi Trading plans £370m+ stock market IPO

#83

Post by dude187 »

Sunspark wrote: post #71
0des wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I respect your willingness to think outside of the box, and am thankful for your reply, I am old enough to remember that communism is not something I personally desire.

Pure communism as conceived in theory is not the same thing as the Soviet and Chinese applications which are really authoritarianism.

Communism is totalitarian by nature. It will always be evil and abhorrent

Re: Raspberry Pi Trading plans £370m+ stock market IPO

#84

Post by pxeger1 »

ksec wrote: post #75

Raspberry Pi Trading is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Raspberry Pi Foundation. Mozilla Corporation is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Mozilla Foundation. The quality of comments in this thread is well below the minimum HN standards.

But if it goes public, surely it will no longer be a wholly owned subsidiary of the Raspberry Pi Foundation?

Re: Raspberry Pi Trading plans £370m+ stock market IPO

#85

Post by ceejayoz »

robomartin wrote: post #82
et15 wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you're still confusing revenue and profits. This guide is a good overview of the difference: https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/122214/what-differe...

I have self-funded, founded and run multiple businesses in the last 40 years. What I post does not come from a 30 second google session. It comes from having had significant skin in the game, succeeding and failing. Most people think they understand business. And most people have never run a non-trivial business. It's like trying to explain what it is like to fly like a bird without being a bird. Most simply can't ge…

OK, but none of that really qualifies you to arbitrarily redefine the term "profit" to fit your argument.

https://www.google.com/search?q=uber+first+profit

https://www.google.com/search?q=amazon+first+profit

make it fairly clear how people use the terms.

Re: Raspberry Pi Trading plans £370m+ stock market IPO

#86

Post by black_puppydog »

MarcScott wrote: post #49
jacknews wrote: post #9

RIP RPi. I thought the whole idea was to produce boards, priced near cost, for educational/inspirational purposes? ie to give today's kids the same kind of intro to computers (you have to program it) as kids enjoyed with the home computers of the 80's. The profit motive inherent to a public company does not seem compatible with that mission.

That was the original idea. However, as well as producing a board that was great for education and hobbyists, it turned out it was great for a whole range of applications, and the bulk orders started coming in from companies all over the world. The Foundation is funded on the sales of Raspberry Pi hardware, government contracts and charitable donations. More sales directly benefit the charity. This allows us to: - Ru…

Can you go into more detail on how the Foundation and the company are separated?

I see a lot of doubt in this thread, and while some of it seems to come from a confusion of the two entities, the rest seems to acknowledge their separation, but doubt that it will protect the foundation in the long run.

So, what would interest me would be how funding & staffing of the foundation works, if there are arrangements to ensure access to low-price material for the activities you list and such.

Edit: a link to an FAQ or such will do just nicely of course ;)

Re: Raspberry Pi Trading plans £370m+ stock market IPO

#87

Post by phkahler »

0des wrote: post #30
jacknews wrote: post #9

RIP RPi. I thought the whole idea was to produce boards, priced near cost, for educational/inspirational purposes? ie to give today's kids the same kind of intro to computers (you have to program it) as kids enjoyed with the home computers of the 80's. The profit motive inherent to a public company does not seem compatible with that mission.

How do we stop this cycle where it's a (well-deserved) reluctant goodbye every time a company we like seeks to go public and IPO? It's like the writing's on the wall and we already know what's going to happen.. We're in a segment of time where companies are so over-valued by VC that when they go public they have no choice but to engage in egregious practices to maintain the stock price. It often alienates the custome…

>> Is this the inevitable outcome in all cases or is this a symptom of a flaw in our model?

The problem seems to be that "investment" these days is all about selling to someone else at a higher price. Stock performance has decoupled from company value but people still try to "meet expectations" anyway.

One driver is low interest rates. Another is the 401k plans in the US where every middle-class employee is systematically pushing money into the market. this provides an ultimate sucker for every VC to sell to since the end-game is to IPO at astronomical valuations.

Re: Raspberry Pi Trading plans £370m+ stock market IPO

#88

Post by mym1990 »

ksec wrote: post #75

Raspberry Pi Trading is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Raspberry Pi Foundation. Mozilla Corporation is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Mozilla Foundation. The quality of comments in this thread is well below the minimum HN standards.

Maybe I am dense, but what is your point with the first 2 lines?

Re: Raspberry Pi Trading plans £370m+ stock market IPO

#89

Post by pbronez »

black_puppydog wrote: post #86
MarcScott wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That was the original idea. However, as well as producing a board that was great for education and hobbyists, it turned out it was great for a whole range of applications, and the bulk orders started coming in from companies all over the world. The Foundation is funded on the sales of Raspberry Pi hardware, government contracts and charitable donations. More sales directly benefit the charity. This allows us to: - Ru…

Can you go into more detail on how the Foundation and the company are separated? I see a lot of doubt in this thread, and while some of it seems to come from a confusion of the two entities, the rest seems to acknowledge their separation, but doubt that it will protect the foundation in the long run. So, what would interest me would be how funding & staffing of the foundation works, if there are arrangements to ensur…

the article says that the Foundation owns the Company. Wonder how that changes when the company IPOs... maybe the Foundation retains majority ownership?

"The Raspberry Pi Foundation, formed in 2009, is a registered charity with a goal of putting “the power of computing and digital making into the hands of people all over the world.” The famous eponymous SBC was designed to be affordable and champion programming in schools, hoping to repeat the home computer boom of the 1980s. Raspberry Pi Trading Ltd is a wholly-owned subsidiary responsible for the engineering and trading operations of the foundation."

Re: Raspberry Pi Trading plans £370m+ stock market IPO

#90

Post by throwmamatrain »

Trading company is separate from the foundation, purpose is to split the edu org from the industrial org. For those that don't know, raspis are bulk ordered for industrial use and this part intends to escalate that part of the business. RP2040 is an example of spinning off raspi tech for use in other boards.

If you look back, you can see where Upton and friends are good stewards of the raspi foundation (separate).

hn community is so used to companies being two-faced and kicking the ladder out when they "make it", but I don't think this is happening here. Even if it is, its fair to say we've gotten a lot from raspi.

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